FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

**Tales From the Cat House

Featherweights**

"You're sure that's the right person?"

Kinuta scowled, obviously irritated by the tiger's question. It was the third time he had voiced his concerns over the past hour, and nothing she said seemed to placate him. The raccoon's ears twitched back, her eyes narrowed, but she kept her voice low and carefully measured so as not to draw undue attention from any of the other nearby beastkin.

"Yes." She murmured, her speech clipped and precise as usual. Trade-tongue wasn't her first language, but she spoke it very well for a foreigner. "I am certain."

Tanner frowned, sparing another quick glance across the market square. It was mostly empty this late in the evening, but there were still a few dozen beastkin milling about, including the one that had been marked as their quarry. The tigerkin had been working with - er, or maybe for - the eastern warrior for a few days now, and they had spent the bulk of that time rather intently pursuing some sort of mysterious shadow-creature that she referred to as a 'tengu'. According to her, they were some sort of dreadful, malign monstrosities with innate magical powers and a sadistic sense of humor.

The person they were currently spying upon, however, just looked like some wizened old catkin. She was obviously a scam artist of some sort, it was hard to imagine she was any real threat. They'd been watching her almost half a day now, and in that time she had never strayed far from her rickety wooden booth.

The tiger's whiskers twitched, and he peered sidelong at the raccoon beside him. They were both fairly well concealed, loitering at the mouth of an alley all the way across the square. Kinuta seemed intent on waiting for the crowds to thin out even further, and it wouldn't be much longer now before the sun had set and the market would finish emptying entirely.

And then, Tanner reminded himself, once there weren't any witnesses left to see them, they would apparently be assaulting what looked to be some poor old woman.

Tanner was silent for another long moment, before finally clearing his throat. He hated to keep echoing himself, but he really did feel the need to be absolutely certain that they were doing the right thing. "Her?"

Kinuta's jaw visibly clenched, her eyes slipping shut as she remained silent for several long seconds. Her whole body was tensed, her fingers clenching so tight that the white of her knuckles was even visible through her fur. She obviously didn't like being questioned, especially not by him, but she seemed to be making a solid effort toward controlling her temper.

Still, Tanner couldn't help but flinch a little when she suddenly turned to face him.

"Were this not a job that required at least two beastkin," she murmured in a surprisingly calm tone, "then I would discipline you severely for doubting my word. As my employee, it is not your place to question me so."

"Ah," Tanner hesitated, then sighed. She was right, he really was behaving unprofessionally. He liked to imagine that it was for an understandable reason, because this really did feel wrong, but still - a job was a job. He would just have to hope that the raccoon knew what she was doing. "Of... of course, Lady Usutsu. I apologize."

Kinuta nodded sharply, clearly reveling in the tiger's submission for a few seconds before she uttered a sigh as well. Her eyes lingered on the tiger for a moment, her smug self-satisfaction giving way to something that almost looked like disappointment. She almost seemed to be waiting for him to say or do something else, but once it was obvious that he had ceded to her authority she just grunted and looked away again.

Tanner frowned, eying the clearly annoyed raccoon. He was having a very hard time getting a read on her moods.

"Fine." Kinuta scowled a little, her fur bristling as if she could somehow feel the tiger's gaze upon her. "If it will set your mind at ease, then I can assure you that this woman is almost certainly one of the tengu that I have come here to hunt."

Tanner nodded slightly, waiting for Kinuta to continue, but she had lapsed back into silence. He cleared his throat again, trying to prompt her to continue, but she didn't seem to notice. Finally, he opted to prod her along verbally. "How do you know?"

Kinuta's lip curled a little, but she finally spoke again. "She postures as a teller of fortunes, and to most she might appear as little more than a common charlatan. Most of her fortunes are false, but her misfortunes always come true."

"Wait..." The tigerkin's brow furrowed, his ears slanting forward as he tried to decipher that. Kinuta spoke trade-tongue so well that it was easy to forget it was a second language to her. "So you're saying that most of the good fortunes she tells don't come true, but all of the bad ones do?"

The raccoon turned some, fixing the male with an even stare. "Yes. Is that not what I said?"

Her head twitched away again, her gaze settling back onto the cheap wooden booth that the fortune teller was standing behind. The old catkin was working a client at the moment, some hapless sandcat that seemed less than convinced about whatever outlandish fortune she was giving him.

"I believe her to be Hiun," Kinuta murmured after another moment of thought, her ears twitching forward as if she were somehow trying to hear the conversation that was taking place across the square. "A particularly depraved tengu that takes delight in tormenting males. I have attempted to confront her twice before, but she has always managed to elude me."

"What, uh..." Tanner glanced toward the fortune teller, his tone a little skeptical. "And what is it that she's done, exactly? I mean, aside from convincing people to give her good coin for bad fortunes?"

Kinuta's voice remained even, her attention so focused now that she seemed to forget that she was supposed to be annoyed by the tiger's incessant questions. "A noble in Pazar refused to pay her after she predicted that he would come to regret his infidelities. The next evening, his newest mistress poisoned him with a drug that rendered him infertile.

Both the fortune teller and the mistress vanished on the following day."

The two remained silent for a moment, before Tanner spoke up again. "Well, I'll admit that's a bit suspicious, but-"

"A bounty hunter in Forgetown sought her guidance while tracking a dangerous bandit She provided the guidance he sought, but warned him against pursuing his prey." Kinuta interrupted, her gaze still holding steady on the fortune teller. "He ignored her warnings, and was later viciously beaten by the very bandit that he sought to capture. It took him months to fully recover, and his reputation was ruined."

Tanner snorted, "Well that's just a normal hazard of being a bounty hun-"

Kinuta's ear twitched, and she swiveled her gaze back to the tiger once more. "A foxkin sneakthief stole some of her coin, right here in Ma'Karach just weeks ago. He was then beaten by almost every woman he subsequently interacted with, until he finally fled the city."

"Okay." Tanner relented, his tone one of defeat. "Okay, fine. So that's more than just a little suspicious. But does that really prove that she's one of those, ah... tangos?"

"Tengu." Kinuta quickly corrected him.

Tanner nodded. "Right, sorry. Does that really prove that she's one of those tengu that you're hunting? She could just be some sort of witch, or maybe a necromancer. Hell, maybe she's just someone with good connections, and she hires people to make sure the bad fortunes she gives out come true?"

Kinuta snorted softly, her bushy tail swaying behind her. "Perhaps so, but even if she is not a tengu, then she is still a criminal. If I strike her down and it is revealed that she was merely a practitioner of dark magics, I would still not be in the wrong. Are there not laws against such things, even here in your primitive western kingdoms?"

That gave the tiger pause, although he wasn't quite sure if it was because she was actually correct in her assessment, or simply because of the mildly insulting way she had phrased it. Tanner gave it another moment's thought before giving her a grudging nod. "Fair enough. We'll confront her once we can get her alone."

"No," the raccoon murmured thoughtfully. The square was almost empty now, and the sun had almost entirely vanished behind the rooftops. One by one, the evenly spaced lamplights that flanked the cobblestone roads began to magically ignite themselves, providing dim illumination for the few beastkin that were still walking the streets. "If she is what I suspect she is, then a direct confrontation will be too dangerous. You will approach her and occupy her attentions, while I move through those alleys to flank her from behind."

Tanner nodded slightly. He still had some doubts, but he was at least sufficiently convinced enough to drop the matter. For now. "Of course. So, ah, I get to be the bait."

"Well," Kinuta almost smiled, though she managed to suppress all but the slightest hint of mirth. "You ARE the employee, and I the employer. If there is a risk to take, then is it not your place to take it? Are you not here to ensure that my... body does not come to harm, even at the potential cost of your own?"

The tiger grunted, a little annoyed by that implication, but he still couldn't help but grin. It was hard to tell with the female, but he was fairly certain that she was teasing him. "Alright, fine. But just this once, okay? And only because I'm twice her size."

Kinuta's expression deadened again, any trace of levity vanishing in an instant. She turned, a hand raising as she did so. The tiger flinched again, half-expecting her to slap him, but she instead set one hand to his closer arm. "Tanner, do not underestimate her. It is true that I... might be drawing incorrect conclusions from the evidence I have gathered. But if I am correct in my suspicions, then any misstep could prove fatal."

Tanner hesitated, then nodded again, a slight smile slipping onto his own muzzle as he tried to put Kinuta back at ease. He turned some, setting his hand on the raccoon's shoulder. "Of course, Lady Usutsu. I will take all due caution, and endeavor to come back to you in one piece."

She met his gaze, her eyes lingering on his own for a few seconds before she abruptly turned away. Her arm raised sharply, lightly slapping the tiger's hand from her shoulder. "Good. I would hate to have to find another bodyguard. In addition, tengu are petty and vengeful creatures, and I would hate to endure their wrath alone should you compromise my mission by allowing yourself to die."

Tanner rolled his eyes, but his smile broadened. "Right. Such an awful inconvenience that would be."

"It would be," Kinuta glanced sidelong at the tiger, the faintest smirk gracing her lips once more. "This city has very few beastkin of worth to offer. It would take some degree of effort to find another."

Tanner blinked, a tad surprised at that. He was slowly growing accustomed to the woman's bewilderingly passive-aggressive behavior, but she still managed to catch him off-guard on a regular basis. "Oh! Ah, well, thank you Lady Usutsu. That... almost sounded like a comp-"

"It is time." Kinuta murmured softly, her ears perked and her eyes back on the market square. The street was dark now, but for the flicker of the magical lamplights, and all of the beastkin had departed. All, that was, except for the fortune teller - she was occupied with breaking down her makeshift booth, and counting up what meager coin she had managed to gather. The raccoon gestured sharply toward the doddering old catkin. "Go."

And with that, she vanished into the shadows.

Tanner exhaled softly, but his smile persisted. She was an enigma, that one, but no more so than any other woman he had ever spent much time with. Of course, the real question was, would he have still found an excuse to spend time with her even if she weren't paying him? He thought on that for a second, but then quickly cleared it from his mind.

There was no point in dwelling on that sort of thing right now. There was a job to be done.

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Kinuta stepped lightly, neatly weaving from shadow to shadow with well-practiced ease. Another beastkin came into view - a passing lion in pompous garb - and she fell completely still. Thankfully he hardly seemed interested in his surroundings, and was far more preoccupied with grousing about some tiny rip in his doubtless expensive wardrobe. Another second later the raccoon had maneuvered past him without drawing any notice.

She neared the mouth of an alleyway before sparing the briefest glance back toward the marketplace. Tanner was walking across the empty square now, right out in the open, intent as he was on drawing the attention of her prey. Hopefully he wouldn't-

Kinuta growled, her head shaking sharply as she tried to keep herself focused. That damned tiger, now he had her second-guessing her own plan - maybe even doubting herself. This was unacceptable. She quickened her pace, slipping into the alleyway she had pointed out to the male earlier, and began circling the buildings so she could approach her prey from behind.

The alley was long and dark, and oddly twisted as it crooked back and forth between various unevenly built structures, but she was fairly certain she was moving in the right direction. Still, it was taking a bit longer to get into position than she had thought it would, and before long she couldn't help but let her thoughts drift back to that tigerkin...

Her relationship with the tiger was frustrating, to say the least. There was certainly some appeal to having him as a partner. He seemed capable enough, relatively speaking, and the payment he asked for was certainly reasonable. He also had a certain charm about him, and she might almost be tempted to call him attractive - if she were the sort to give in to something as pointlessly self-indulgent as physical attraction.

Still, his tendency to speak his mind so often was... aggravating. And even worse was the fact that he seemed intent on holding her back, ceaselessly questioning her motives and her instincts at every turn. Sure, maybe she had OCCASIONALLY acted a bit too rashly in the past. And yes, perhaps there had been a few... awkward moments in the past when she had assaulted some orphan or shopkeeper or clergyman under the misguided assumption that they were one of the creatures she had hunted. But those were acceptable mistakes in the grand scheme of things, and it wasn't as if she had ever actually KILLED any of those people.

To have the tiger, no matter how handsome and charming he might be, constantly criticizing her was-

Kinuta rounded another corner, then came to an abrupt halt. She had been caught up in her own thoughts, but still, she couldn't help but notice that this alley looked rather familiar. Had she just gone in a circle?

She turned, moving backward a few steps to the corner she had just rounded, and she stopped again. Something throbbed in her brain, just behind her eyes, and the world seemed to waver slightly before it resolidified around her.

Wait. Had she just... gone in a circle again? This alley looked... familiar...

She shook her head some, forcing herself to focus on the task at hand. Tanner was no doubt waiting for her, and the Gods knew that he didn't stand a chance against one of the tengu on his own. And, as infuriating as he was, she loathed the thought of anything happening to him. In fact, even the thought of it made her quicken her pace.

Kinuta paused again, her ears twitching slightly as she rounded another corner. Her eyes closed to slits as a fleeting pain spiked through her brain once more, but it was gone just as quickly as it had come, and she had already forgotten about it by the time her eyes flicked back open.

She took in her surroundings once more, trying to get her bearings. Wait. Had she just gone in a circle again? This alley looked... familiar...

And overhead, on one of the many twilight-shrouded rooftops, a feathered thing watched her every movement with beady, glimmering eyes...

***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****

Tanner strode across the empty marketplace, his back straight and his shoulders squared as he did his utmost to look like he belonged there. And honestly, he really DID belong there, given that the city of Karash sported more feline-type beastkin than any other.

He moved along the street as casually as he could, but slowed as he drew near the older and shorter catkin.

"Ma'am?" He called out, his tone painstakingly polite. "Do you need help with that?"

The old fortune teller briefly ceased her labors, halfway through unscrewing one of the wooden legs that kept her makeshift booth upright. The stand looked crude at a glance, but now that he was closer he could see that it was rather ingeniously designed, and apparently converted into some sort of little wagon for ease of transport. She was already halfway done with breaking it apart, but the painted wooden backdrop was still propped up, unfolded against the wall behind her. It garishly advertised the precognitive abilities of 'Madame Tabitha the All-Seeing'.

Still, it did look like an awful lot of work, especially for the thin and mange-furred old catkin. She barely stood higher than five feet, though her stooped posture made it difficult to ascertain her exact height, and as she turned toward Tanner it was obvious from her milky-white eyes that she was practically blind. "Eh?" She queried, a hand raised up to one of her asymmetrical ears. "Another customer?"

Tanner smiled faintly, gesturing down toward the partially disassembled booth this time as he spoke a little louder this time. "No, I was just asking if you needed help. That seems like an awful lot of work for just one beastkin."

This time the fortune teller seemed to acknowledge what he was saying, and her muzzle split into a wide, gaptoothed smile. "Oh! That's very kind of you, young man. But no, my children should be along to help me soon enough."

"Oh," Tanner paused, glancing about. "There were no signs of anyone else on the adjoining streets now, and even the windows had mostly gone dark. "Er, well then, I suppose I'll just be on my-"

"But I wouldn't mind if you waited here with me," the fortune teller continued, as if she hadn't heard the tiger's words at all. "One can never be too careful these days."

Tanner arched a brow, stopping in mid-sentence as he looked back to the fortune teller. She didn't seem to be paying him any mind now, absorbed as she was in breaking down the booth. "Ah, of course. Madame..."

He glanced to the painted backdrop, then smiled again. "Tabitha, is it?"

"That is I," the old women smiled, in what was probably intended to be a mysterious fashion. She straightened some, or as much as her crooked back allowed her to, before gesturing grandly toward the garishly painted but well-faded backdrop. She hardly cut much of an impressive figure, given her withered frame and threadbare robes, but that didn't seem to dampen her enthusiasm any. "Madame Tabitha the All-Seeing and All-Knowing. Sought after by kings and countrymen alike, all of whom hope for a glimpse of their futures."

Tanner chuckled, unable to resist a bit of goading. After all, telling fortunes was one of the oldest scams in the book. There were certainly many forms of magic to be found in Skarn, but the ability to see the future simply wasn't one of them. "Is that so? Well then, I don't suppose you can see anything about me, can you?"

The frail fortune teller fixed him with an appraising gaze. Or she tried, at least, but her milky eyes seemed to have a hard time focusing. After a long moment, her muzzle finally split into a toothless grin once more. "Of course, you are of the Ta'nari Clan. If not by name, then at least by blood."

Tanner snorted slightly, but his smile held steady. "Yes, well, many tigers are, especially here in Karash. I'd be hard pressed to find a single striper in this city who can't draw their lineage back to someone, somewhere in the Ta'nari clan."

"So you doubt my powers, do you?" The old cat was still smiling, but there was a dangerous edge to it now.

"Well, ah..." Tanner was slightly taken aback, but he wasn't about to let himself be intimidated by someone who cut such an unintimidating figure. "Perhaps. But only because that didn't really prove anything. Saying that I'm somehow related to the Ta'nari clan is like... like saying that a panther is going to claim he's of noble blood, or that a sandcat is probably from the desert."

"You're waiting for someone." Tabitha mused, seeming unperturbed by the larger feline's open show of skepticism.

Tanner cocked his head slightly to one side, his arms crossing as he looked down at the old woman. "Yes. I'm waiting for your children to arrive. You asked me to wait with you."

"No..." Tabitha smiled again, that vaguely dangerous look returning in full force. "You're waiting for someone else. Someone that you have feelings for?"

"Of course," Tanner chuckled softly. "So your prediction is that I'm waiting for someone who I have feelings for? That's a little more specific, but still vague enough to essentially be meaningless. I mean, you have feelings for your children, don't you?"

The fortune teller waited patiently for the tiger to finish speaking, her expression never wavering. If anything, her tone was almost patronizing when she was finally a chance to respond. "Yesss, I do have very strong feelings for my children. So I hope you understand how difficult it was for me to waste my time here with you, while my children are taking care of your friend."

"Well-" Tanner began, though he quickly paused as his mind caught up with the conversation a split second later. "Wait, what?"

"You are here with Kinuta, erstwhile warrior of the Usutsu Clan." Tabitha purred smugly. "Are you not?"

Tanner shifted subtly, one hand drawing closer to the hilt of his longblade. "I don't know what you're talking about."

The fortune teller smiled, her milky gaze swaying away from the tiger and toward the rooftop opposite from where they were standing. A shadowed figure stood there at the roof's edge, tall and dark with a feathered cloak settled about its broad shoulders. As Tanner spotted it, the figure swept it's cloak open to reveal the limp form of a smaller female. She seemed bloodied and still, and it was difficult to tell from this distance if she was even still alive.

"Kinuta!" He growled, his fingers curling about the hilt of his sword.

"Oh," The fortune teller purred. "So you do know her, then?"

Tanner took firmer hold of the hilt that was pressed against his palm, the leather-wrapped grip cool and familiar in his hand. His jaw clenched, his eyes staying on the figure that now stood motionless overhead, and his voice lowered to a lethal hiss. "Release her at once."

Tabitha steepled her fingers, one brow arched as she studied the tiger. She gave an exaggerated blink, and the milky film abruptly vanishing from her eyes, replaced instead by a glossy black sheen. "Do you really think that you're in a position to negotiate?"

"I don't-" The tiger hesitated, his gaze lowered again as he took in his surroundings. The old fortune teller had hardly moved, but now he was starting to detect motion from the corners of his eyes, at the very edge of his vision. There were other... things out there, in the shadows. He turned his head, trying to get a better look, but he couldn't quite make out their number or even their shapes. They seemed unnatural , like something from a dream - or a nightmare.

Whatever they were, they seemed to outnumber him.

His shoulders slumped, his fingers going lax against the hilt of his blade. Looking back to the smug fortune teller, he uttered a defeated sigh. "What do you want from us?"

"From you?" Tabitha smiled, her hands held to either side. "Nothing. We only want your friend."

Tanner scowled, his head turning slightly once more as he glanced back toward the rooftop. The figure was gone now, and Kinuta with him. "Why? What has she done to deserve this?"

Tabitha's pleasant demeanor faltered, giving a very brief glimpse of something ugly just below the surface. Her voice cracked, taking on a shrill note that grated at the tiger's ears. "It is none of your concern, boy. All that matters is that she is ours now, and you will leave this place at once if you value your life."

"And..." The tigerkin paused, his attention focused on the smaller beastkin once more. His stance shifted subtly, one foot sliding out a bit past the other, and his weight leaned forward onto his toes as he prepared himself. "When you've gotten whatever it is that you want from her, you'll return her to me?"

Tabitha's brows arched, her smile going wider as she adopted a look of surprised amusement. "Oh, certainly. Though I can hardly imagine what you might want with her corpse."

Tanner had heard enough. He was already in position, so all it took was a far less subtle shift of his weight as he drew his blade and attacked in a single fluid motion.

The fortune teller, despite her evident frailty, reacted instantly. A piece of wood, one of the wooden legs she had unfastened from her booth, sprang upward with surprising speed to intercept the tiger's blade. The edge of the sword bit deep, cutting halfway through the makeshift club, but it was slowed just enough to allow Tabitha to duck the blow.

Tanner slid forward another step, his blade low as he dashed the hunk of wood from the edge of his blade. It only took him a scant few seconds, but in that time Tabitha had already retreated another half-dozen steps until her back was pressed to the garishly painted backdrop behind her.

The tiger quickly advanced on her, his blade held at the ready, and Tabitha reached down to grab at the edge of her partially disassembled booth. Heaving it upright with surprising strength and speed, she threw it into the tiger's path.

"Feh!" Tanner scoffed, taking his blade in both hands. He hacked the booth apart with one mighty swing, and a firm kick from his leather boot sent the pieces scattering in every direction.

A brief look of terror flashed across the old fortune teller's face as he continued his pursuit, his blade poised to strike once more. He was intent on taking her alive, perhaps for use as a bargaining chip so that he could secure Kinuta's safe return, but his fur stood on end as her arms came up. Was she readying some sort of spell? Was she readying a concealed weapon? Or maybe she really was an old woman who was just trying to defend herself as best she could.

Tanner barely hesitated, plunging his blade forward as he attempted to impale her before she could finish the gesture. He couldn't afford to give her the benefit of the doubt, at least not under these circumstances, but he at least tried to angle his blade so that the wound was less likely to be a lethal one.

Tabitha's arms came back down in a sharp motion, and she seemed to explode in a cloud of roiling black smoke. The tiger's blade plunged through the cloud with ease, finding no resistance until the tip finally plunged into the wooden backdrop behind it. He quickly held his breath, wrenching his blade free and stepping away from the acrid plume the fortune teller had left in her wake.

The tiger frowned, sweeping his blade through the plume of smoke a few times, while being careful not to inhale any of the vapors - but his blade met no other resistance. Looking about the marketplace, he saw no sign of the old woman, and he certainly couldn't see any hiding spots that she could have possibly retreated to from where she had been standing.

He glanced upward as something fluttered overhead, his sword coming up just in time to deflect a whirling bit of metal. It glanced awkwardly from the edge of his blade, twisting away in a clumsy arc and clattering to the cobblestoned street. Ears skewed, his eyes flicked down to the moonlit cobblestones, where the hurled weapon had landed - it looked like some sort of single-edged throwing knife.

Tanner quickly shifted his stance once more, reaching back and unslinging the shield he was wearing on his back. It wasn't much, perhaps just a foot in diameter, but it was better than nothing. No sooner had he finished readying the shield than another glint of steel caught his eye, and he swiftly raised his arm in an effort to intercept the weapon. It glanced from the rim of his shield with the distinctive *PING* of metal-on-metal, before clattering to the ground.

His eyes narrowed as he tried to scrutinize the edge of the marketplace. He wasn't exactly certain where his attacker was concealed, but-

Two more blades thumped into the surface of his freshly drawn shield in rapid succession, one near the center, and another almost a handspan higher, near the upper edge. The throws were so precise that he was beginning to wonder if his would-be ambusher was deliberately aiming for the shield. Were they just trying to frighten him off?

The tiger took a few cautious steps in the direction that he was now certain the attacks were coming from - and he grunted as yet another blade streaked from the darkness, this time glancing off of the shield's upper edge before planting itself almost an inch deep in his left bicep. The sudden shock of pain was enough to loosen his hold on the shield's leather grip, and another hurled knife knocked it out of his grasp entirely.

Tanner exhaled sharply through clenched teeth, briefly glancing to the blade that was jutting from his arm. It was a light weapon, perhaps intended more to wound than to kill, and it had just barely pushed through the wire mesh that was woven into his clothing. He swept his sword about, catching the edge against the knife's handle to knock it free from his sleeve, and another brief inspection was enough to verify that the wound was far from life-threatening.

He knew precisely where his attacker was hiding now, and it was evident that the blades were intended to drive him away rather than kill him outright. He steeled himself, drawing in a steady breath, and then broke into a sudden sprint toward the alleyway that the knives were coming from.

Two more blades flicked through the shadowed square in rapid succession, but this time the tigerkin was ready. He dipped low, hitting the ground as he neatly shoulder-rolled beneath the hurled blades, and he came back up on his feet a split second later. His empty hand had been filled now, with the dagger that he normally kept sheathed in his boot, and he quickly flipped it in his grip to hold it poised and ready for throwing.

A few more long strides brought him to the edge of the alleyway that the hurled knives had been coming from, and he stopped short - the dark alley seemed empty. It was short and straight, lined with trash bins and old wooden crates, and ended abruptly at an eight-foot tall wooden fence. But there wasn't any sign of-

Ah, there she was - though the figure he had caught up with hardly resembled the mangy old crone he had interacted with before. His target slipped from behind the last row of trash bins, tall and slim and dripping with black feathers, and she launched herself skyward just as the tiger caught sight of her. He had almost completely overlooked her at first, as if she had blurred right into the deepest shadows, but now the illusion was shattered as she tried to flee once more.

Tanner's wrist flicked, his dagger leaping from his hand and into the fleeing figure.

"WARK!" The thing squawked indignantly, twisting in midair as it was struck. Her feet clipped the top of the fence as she just barely managed to finish clearing it, her whole body twisting awkwardly as she flipped and spun out of sight. A second later, the crash of meat against stone marked her equally awkward landing on the other side of the barricade.

Tanner uttered a satisfied grunt, quickly pursuing his felled foe. He lunged toward the fence in one, two, three quick steps before launching himself onto one of the refuse bins. Maintaining his momentum, he planted a hand against the top of the fence and vaulted over, dropping down neatly into the alley beyond.

It was quiet now. Quiet and still, but for the sound of his own harsh breathing. This stretch of alleyway was part of a short maze that laced between a half-dozen buildings, and other than more trash bins and some poorly maintained gutters, it didn't seem to see much use. Two doors were set into nearby walls, but both sported obvious locks.

"Hmmn..." Tanner rumbled to himself, his slit-pupiled eyes quickly adjusting to the darkness. Here, away from the street, there were precious few sources of light - but his feline heritage meant that it was little more than a mild inconvenience.

He spied his dagger lying on the ground nearby, and quickly stooped to recover it. There was a bit of blood gleaming against it's tip, and a few more drops were visibly splattered across the filthy ground and a nearby wall. He had obviously clipped his target.

The dagger went back into his boot sheath, a brow arched as he plucked up one of the half-dozen or so black feathers that were also scattered across the alley floor. Perhaps it was more accurate to assume that he had WINGED his target? He had been skeptical of Kinuta's claims before, about the tengu, but now he wasn't so certain.

Tanner's gaze flicked upward as he discarded the feather, his line of sight tracing the length of the alley. Well, if he had managed to wound the creature, then perhaps she was stuck traveling on foot. And if that was the case, then there was only one direction that she could have fled in.

He began to cautiously proceed along the alleyway, slowly sweeping his gaze across every shadowed nook or well-worn trash bin that he passed. Whatever this thing was, it seemed to be adept at stealth, so there was no sense in blindly rushing-

Someone abruptly stumbled into his path, and his eyes went wide. "Kinuta!?"

Tanner quickly moved across the alley, his caution forgotten as he rushed to the injured raccoon's side. Kinuta was on her feet, but she was obviously bloodied and disheveled, with her weapons missing and her robes torn halfway open. One arm was hanging limply at her side, the other hand set to her wounded shoulder.

"Ta'nari," she gasped in response, seeming both surprised and grateful at the sight of him. Both faded quickly, replaced instead by indignant outrage. "Where the hell WERE you!?"

Tanner moved to her side, resheathing his sword as he instead focused on inspecting her injuries. There were a lot of bruises and abrasions, as if she had been tossed around violently, and her shoulder was clearly dislocated. He didn't bother responding to the raccoon's outraged query, instead nudging her against the alley wall.

"Wait," Kinuta squeaked in alarm, her eyes growing wide as he set both hands to her dislocated arm. "What are you-!?"

*POP*

The dislocated joint audibly slipped back into place, the horrific sound quickly drowned out by a steady stream of foreign words. From the tone, the tiger was fairly certain that he was being cursed out.

Tanner took a few quick steps back, putting some distance between himself and the raccoon before she could think to lash out at him. When she didn't immediately retaliate, he sparead a quick, thin-lipped smile. "Just dislocated. You should be fine."

"Aaahhh-" Kinuta hissed, her jaw clenching as she bit back another torrent of foreign expletives. She was obviously still in pain, but after another moment she had recovered enough to test the joint, her shoulder rolling experimentally. "Nnf. Thanks."

The tiger nodded slightly, graciously accepting the raccoon's reluctant gratitude. "Now, what happened?"

"I was ambushed," the raccoon grunted, kneading gently at her bruised shoulder. It would be some time before her arm was back in fighting shape, but now she could at least use it to defend herself. "There were two of the beasts, and one of them caught me unawares while I was circling around to meet you."

Tanner nodded sympathetically, glancing away as he scanned the alley - and then the rooftops. If there were any more of those feathered things lurking about, he certainly couldn't see them. "I didn't fair much better. You were right about the fortune teller, by the way. She was definitely some kind of witch or... or a physical adept or something."

"A tengu," Kinuta frowned. "As I thought."

Tanner nodded again, an ear skewed in anticipation of the lecture that was sure to come. He'd been wrong to doubt the raccoon, and he was man enough to admit that, but knowing her she'd still happily belabor the point. "Right. One of those 'tengu' things."

Kinuta was silent for a few seconds, but then apparently decided against lecturing the male. Instead, she uttered a frustrated sigh. "Well, they're gone now. They likely fled once they realized they couldn't overpower us. They're probably halfway to the next city by now."

Tanner arched a brow. "You really think they've fled from Karash entirely? They almost had us with their first attack, and now we're both injured. If they attacked us a second time, they could-"

"No." Kinuta's tone was firm, but her expression was just a bit odd. "Tengu are cautious creatures, and will only engage in battle when they know they can win. They also have an odd sense of nobility, and generally consider themselves above the pettiness of revenge."

"Um, okay..." The tiger cocked his head slightly, his gaze flitting back to the raccoon uncertainly. That didn't quite match up to what she had said about tengu before, but he wasn't about to start an argument about it.

The raccoon met his gaze, her expression still a little odd as she moved to the male's side. One hand set gently to his closer arm, her eyes dipping to his waist. "But just in case, I'll need a weapon. The beasts have stolen mine."

Tanner tensed a bit at her touch, but then offered a sheepish smile. "Right, of course. Sorry, er..." He looked down, first glancing to his sword, then further down toward his boot. "Well, I'd rather keep my sword since it's a family heirloom and all, but I do have a spare dagger that I keep in my boot. Will that be enough for you?"

"That will be..." Kinuta paused, her expression neutral as her eyes drifted over his body now. "... fine..."

The tiger quickly dropped down to one knee, hiking up his pant leg until the hilt of his dagger was visible. Catching the pommel between two fingers, he drew the blade and-

Thick toes slammed up between his thighs from behind, the top of a furred foot crushing into his groin with unforgiving force. The blow was solid, though just slightly off-center due to the asymmetrical positioning of his thighs, but it was still more than enough to send a needle-sharp spike of pain through his left testicle.

"Guh-" Tanner swallowed hard, cutting off his own agonized utterance as he was practically lifted back up and onto his feet by the force of the blow. He lurched forward an unsteady step, trying to put some distance between himself and his unseen attacker, but then that oh-so-familiar pain was joined by the even more familiar crippling sensation of nausea that always came hand-in-hand with most low blows.

He folded at the waist, his legs threatening to buckle beneath him, and the tiger desperately grabbed at the edge of a nearby trashbin as he tried to keep himself upright. The lightweight bin wobbled beneath his weight, but held, giving him a moment to-

Kinuta's fingers settled to his hips, and for a second the tiger assumed that she was trying to help keep him steady, but that hope was thoroughly crushed a split-second later as her knee lifted into his groin from behind. The blow was much more precisely placed this time, since he was standing spread-legged and she had taken the time for proper aim, the broad curve of her kneecap crushing his testes upward against his body and then outward against his tensed thighs with a dull *WHUMPH* of impact.

The pain was significant, but tempered by the fact that the tiger's groin was padded with a layer of boiled leather and thin wire mesh. It wasn't enough to deaden the impact of the raccoon's attacks entirely, especially not to such a delicate region of his body, but it was enough that he was at least able to resist the urge to curl into the fetal position.

Her leg dropped away just as quickly, and Tanner wobbled violently against the trash bin in front of him. The pain was such that he felt like he might collapse at any second, and he wasn't even sure if he'd want to stay upright at this point anyway. Would staying on his feet accomplish anything at this point, other than to leave him open to more attacks?

Kinuta settled the issue for him, her foot lashing out again, but this time plowing into the back of his knee. His leg buckled beneath him, his weight rocking to the side so violently that the bin he was leaning on toppled with him, and he collapsed to the stone-paved ground in an agonized heap.

Tanner was quick to roll onto his side, his dagger falling from his spastically twitching fingers. He was dimly aware of Kinuta circling around his fallen form, and one of his hands jerked downward to help protect his crotch from any further abuse. His other hand planted against the ground to push him halfway upright, his watering eyes narrowed as he twisted about to set his gaze accusingly on the raccoon. "What the HELL was THAT-"

And that was as far as he got before Kinuta kicked him in the face. Her rounded heel thumped soundly into the end of his muzzle, bloodying his nose and lips, and snapping his head backward - half from the force of the impact, and half from his own reflexive attempt to pull away from the blow. The tiger's arm slipped out from beneath him, sending him spilling back onto the ground against a heap of spilled garbage.

Kinuta laughed - though it had an odd and lilted tone to it, like the cackling of a bird. It was the first time that Tanner had ever actually heard her laugh - or express mirth in any significant way, really - but somehow the sound seemed wrong coming from her. He might have even commented on it, if he hadn't been so dazed from being kicked in the face.

"Poor little tiger," the raccoon purred, stepping around the fallen beastkin again. "So gullible."

She planted a foot against the male's ankle, shoving one of his legs wide, and he was in no position to stop her. "So weak."

Now the raccoon stepped between his legs, stooping briefly to grab hold of of his ankles before lifting them as she stepped closer into the "V" formed by his forcibly spread thighs. Her tongue flicked out, swiping over her lips as her muzzle split into a cruel smile. "So... inadequate."

Her right leg lifted some, crooking at the knee as she held her foot poised over the male's crotch. She made a point of languidly flexing and rolling her ankle until she had angled her bare heel toward her obviously intended targets. Then she held that position for a long moment, her foot hanging over the male's crotch for what seemed like an eternity, until Tanner finally raised his head to defiantly meet her gaze.

"Y-... you're not Kinuta." He growled, his fingers clentching against the ground at his sides as he tried to find some leverage that might allow him to escape from his awkward position.

"Oh, you finally got something right." The raccoon smiled, languidly blinking as her eyes went black. She rolled her ankle again, her toes flexing now as if she were waving to him. "Congratulations, here's your prize."

And her foot fell in a sharp motion, the harsh bone of her heel crushing into the tiger's bulge with far more accuracy than either of her previous attacks. Stiff wire weave and thick leather padding buckled beneath the quick stomp, doing little to prevent the soft, bruised little organs beneath from being crushed against the tiger's tensed body.

"Ngh!" Tanner uttered another strangled grunt, his muscles spasming as he felt his perpetually bruised balls being flattened beneath the female's weight. She wasn't the heaviest or strongest beastkin that he'd ever been hit by, but that didn't much matter when the weight was being so selectively and forcefully applied to such a localized - and tender - location.

Kinuta's smile twisted back into a smirk, her black eyes glittering playfully as she watched the male spasm and squirm beneath her. His legs jerked out, straightening and then trying to curl to either side of her hips, but she managed to keep them mostly stilled. The tiger kept one hand on the ground at his side, trying to keep himself propped halfway upright, but the other quickly dipped in a vain attempt to protect his nethers from being on the receiving end of yet another blow.

Not that it helped, of course. She hadn't bothered pulling her foot away after the stomp, and now it was settled firmly in place atop his damaged goods.

The raccoon leaned forward some, pressing more of her weight between the feline's legs. Pain surged up through the tiger's crotch, radiating down through his thighs and up into his abdomen, but Tanner was agains struck withe the thought that the female was oddly light. She had the guise of Kinuta, but even leaning forward against him, she was barely half the raccoon's weight. His breathing harsh, he still managed to find the energy to wrap his fingers around her ankle, though he was still having a hard time forcing his twitching fingers to tighten about the slender joint.

Almost as if she could sense that she wasn't getting quite the desired level of agony, the female scowled and began viciously twisted her ankle back and forth to more brutally grind her heel against the male's leather-padded package. "Oh, please. By all means, keep trying to fight back." She laughed arrogantly, her breathing just a tad heavy with the exertion of her movements. "That just makes this more fun."

Both of Tanner's hands were low now, grasping ineffectually at the female's ankle as she seemed intent on crushing and grinding his kittenmakers into a pulp. He was squirming violently now, writhing beneath her in an effort to slide his bulk from beneath that viciously grinding heel. Unfortunately his efforts wer getting him nowhere - in fact, they just seemed to encourage the sadistic faux-raccoon to redouble her efforts. Within seconds, the tiger had given up on any semblance of defense, instead slumping back again as he uttered shallow gasps and choked mewling sounds.

His aggressor perked, relenting just the slightest bit. Her foot remained planted against the male's crotch, her heel against his well-bruised 'nads and her toes planted a bit higher as she more gently rocked her foot against the varied but uniformly soft organs caught beneath her sole. "Oh, are you finally giving up? That's disappointing... but not very surprising. Still, you should feel proud of yourself. You did better than the usual breed of simpering sellswords that Usutsu usually hires for these suicide missions."

Tanner just groaned, eyes closed to watering slits as he focused on keeping his breathing steady. That was always the most important part when it came to situations like this. He just had to remember to breath.

Kinuta - or the thing that looked like Kinuta, anyway - glanced away as a new figure detached itself from the shadows.

This one was a looming beastkin, tall and dark with a black feathered cloak settled about his shoulders. His head lifted some, the faint moonlight slashing across his face to reveal that he had a beaked mask like that of a plague doctor covering his face - no, that WAS his face. He was beaked like a raven or crow, and now it was obvious that the feathered cloak was actually a massive set of feathered wings that were neatly folded about his shoulders.

One wing lifted, swaying out to the side to reveal a brawny feathered arm and a thick-taloned hand that was wrapped about the lithe figure's neck.

Tanner swallowed hard, blinking rapidly as he tried to clear the pained tears from his eyes. "K-... Kinuta?"

He recognized the feathered beastkin now. It was the same one he'd spied on the rooftop earlier - the same one who'd had the raccoon in tow when the old fortune teller had been warning him off. The raccoon was limply draped against her attacker, much as she had been when he'd last seen her. Her robes were disheveled and bloody, but she seemed largely unharmed, and though she seemed motionless she was also obviously still conscious.

It was strange, seeing the proud raccoon so meekly accepting her captivity, though it was obvious that she was at the creature's - the tengu's - mercy. One errant move on her part, and the thing could easily tear out her throat.

The other raccoon, the one settled so snugly between his forcefully spread legs, cackled again. She straightened some, her weight shifting back to the foot that wasn't planted against his crotch, and she melodramatically rolled her head to either side. Joints popped and cracked audibly, her own disheveled clothing rippling away in a cascade of black feathers, and her body reshaping beneath her sudden obsidian plumage.

Everything about her changed in a matter of seconds. Her fur was gone, as were her rounded ears and her bushy tail. Even her measurements had changed, leaving a taller and thinner avian where the false Kinuta had previously stood. She was entirely unclad, only her feathers lending any sense of modesty to her otherwise bare frame, and even as she settled her massive wings about her own shoulders like a makeshift cloak they stayed parted about his still-captive legs to leave her immodestly exposed.

"I don't..." Tanner muttered, his confusion obvious. His eyes flitted downward, from that smirking beak to the female's feathered frame. Her body was toned well toned and sported voluptuous, almost matronly curves - though the layers of sleek feathers that covered her body lent the illusion of a stockier build. Her chest was generously, though perhaps not so generous as that of the raccoon she had been emulating, and lower her waist grew almost waspishly narrow before flaring outward gain at feathered hips and lusciously thick thighs that framed her moist black sex-

Er, okay, yes. Tanner blushed some, despite the circumstances, as it finally finally seemed to dawn on him that she was indeed entirely naked. Her feathers obscured any trace of her nipples and her navel, assuming she even had any of those - but her cunt was left completely unobscured, and from the looks of it she was rather aroused at the moment. Apparently, she really WAS enjoying this.

The female tengu shifted slightly, the edges of her beaked mouth curling upward as she rolled her shoulder some. Peeking back down at the tiger, she chirped smugly. "Thanks for fixing my arm, by the way. I really appreciate it. It made this SO much easier."

Tanner grunted, his ears twitching back and his tone icy. "Don't mention it."

"Oh," the female crooned playfully. "Don't be like that. It's the only reason you're still breathing. After you hit me with that knife of yours, I really did want nothing more than to see you bleeding at my feet. But after the way you... 'helped' me, I decided to have some fun playing with you instead."

She tilted her head, her smile broadening as she gave him a playful wink. "Just... don't get any ideas, or I might decide I'm not having fun anymore. When I stop having fun, I have a bad habit of... breaking my toys."

The black-plumed beastkin shifted once more as she rocked her raised leg forward, the movement drawing the tiger's gaze lower - and his alarm quickly spiked as he realized the full extent of her transformation. With her illusory guise dropped, her legs had transformed as well. While her flared hips and thick thighs were coated in glossy black feathers, they gave way to black-banded scales just above her knees, and those scales traced all the way down to her avian feet. There, three long toes were stretched across his crotch from nethers to abdomen, with the 'ball' of her foot planted firmly to the soft nuggets a bit lower and her hindtoe braced against the ground between his thighs.

It was hardly a surprise, given that the tengu seemed to be some sort of avian beastkin, but there was still no real preparation for the sight of dagger-sized talons framing one's manhood.

Those talons curled some, now that they were being watched. The female tengu's toes dragged across the fabric of his shirt, tracing over his furred stomach, before hooking beneath the waistline of his pants. With one quick wrenching motion, she almost literally peeled away the front of the feline's armored trousers, padded leather, wire mesh, and cloth all giving way with equal ease beneath the assault.

Tanner's breathing stilled, his fur standing on end. Oh sure, he still had his undergarment on beneath the sundered trousers, but that did nothing to stop the rather sudden and dreadful feeling of vulnerability. Almost as if she were sensing his apprehension, the tengu just smiled down at him, her ankle rolling as her talons neatly tore away his underclothes as well.

Her black tongue flicked about the edge of her long beak, her expression almost hungry, and her foot resettled more snugly against the male's crotch. The sole of her foot, all smooth scales and barely-yielding bone now, pressed back against his obviously swollen balls while her gracefully-tapered talons caressed up along either side of his just as flacid length. The crow's touch was almost gentle now, though that did little to soothe the the abominable ache of the male's recently inflicted bruises.

"Sso," she purred - though now it came out as more of a rasp, given her newly avian form. "Are you ready to negotiate? Or should we revisit the part about 'bleeding at my feet'?"

Tanner panted harshly, his hand coming back up as he rubbed at his bloodied muzzle. Much of the sting had faded now, though it rekindled a bit at his gentle probing. His hand came away with blood staining his fur, and he looked pointedly at the avian.

She rolled her eyes in response, the tips of her talons digging delicately into his flesh at the upper ridge of his pelvis, just below the softer flesh of his stomach. "Oh please, you know what I mean. It can get a lot worse than a split lip and a bloody nose."

Tanner hesitated, then winced as the female rocked her weight against his now infinitely more vulnerable spuds. "Nf, f-... fine. We can negotiate. What are your, hf... what're your terms...?" And a pause, as he twitched an ear with vague curiosity. "Tabitha, right?"

The female shrugged again, her playful demeanor returning and her smile broad. "As good a name as any, though most people who see me in this form call me Hiun. That's not my real name either, but it works just as well for the purposes of this conversation." She clacked her beak, her head cocked some as she fixed her gaze on the prone tiger. "Now, before you ask, let me just make one thing clear - your precious Kinuta's coming with us. There's no changing that."

"I thought this was a negotiation?" Tanner grunted, his elbows planting against the ground at his sides so that he could prop himself up some.

Hiun clacked her beak again, looking thoughtful for a split second before giving another casual shrug. Her wings flexed in time with the shrugging, the massive feathered limbs adding undue weight to the motion. "Well, no, I suppose it really isn't. The only thing that's being decided here is if you're going to back down like a good little kitty and let us go our merry way, or if you're going to keep hissing and scratching until I have to neuter you."

"And trust me," she murmured smugly. Her foot rocked in place again, her aim shifted subtly as she tried to bring her weight down on one of the elusive little organs that was trapped beneath her scaled sole. With a few seconds of maneuvering she managed to isolate the left one, and she slowly and not-so-gently pressed down against it. The tiger winced, his breathing quickened again, and Hiun held steady at that pressure - enough to cause a sharp and constant ache, but not enough to cause any grievous damage. "Given our positions, it would be ssso easy for me to just neuter you and be done with it. I hope you realize how generous I'm being, giving you the choice of crawling out of here intact."

Tanner winced, shuddering despite his best efforts not to. That familiar nausea was forcing it's way back into his gut, accompanied by that sharp and throbbing pain that he'd felt on more than a few occasions. He coughed, his ears skewed as he resisted the urge to whimper aloud. "D-... doesn't sound like I'm getting much out of... ng... this deal..."

"Oh, but you are!" Hiun chirped brightly, the pressure still holding steady even as she lightly drummed her talons against the feline's stomach. "Or do you really place such a low value on your manhood?"

The tiger exhaled sharply, his gaze slanting sideways toward Kinuta and her captor. He didn't really see that he had much choice here, but still - the thought of abandoning someone just didn't sit well with him.

Hiun's head cocked slightly, and she glanced sidelong as well. The male tengu caught her gaze with his own, and she gave him the slightest nod.

Kinuta coughed suddenly, as her captor eased the taloned grip about her neck. She shifted against the male tengu, but he still held her fast with his other arm, keeping her hands pinned tightly in place. Once it became clear that she wasn't being given an opportunity to escape, she turned her gaze pleadingly to the tiger. "Please, just go. I... I deserve this, but I don't want to see you die."

She hesitated, almost melodramatically, blinking rapidly as she murmured so low as to be almost inaudible. "I don't think I could stand to see that. I... I think I lo-"

Hiun jerked her head slightly, and her male counterpart promptly choked the raccoon off again. His wings folded back about his body, shielding the captive raccoon from sight. Hiun turned back to Tanner, her tone as sweet as honey. "So, your decision?"

Tanner exhaled softly, letting out a long and drawn out sigh. His eyes were closed to slits, his body stilled but his mind racing. After a long moment of thought, he opened his eyes once more, his ears slanting forward as he grudgingly nodded. "Fine. I don't like it, but... nf... fine."

Hiun's tongue flicked against her beaktip, her eyes narrowed a tad suspiciously. "Good. Good. Now, throw your sword away. Then I'll release you, and you can crawl off and lick your wounds."

"This... this is a family heirloom." Tanner protested stubbornly, his hand grasping at the hilt of his sheathed blade.

Hiun gave an exaggerated roll of her eyes, finally released the male's legs and letting them flop heavily onto the ground at her sides. "Then come back for it after. What do I care? We don't want your silly toys, we just don't want you getting any stupid ideas in that thick skull of yours."

Tanner curled his lip, but he reluctantly drew his blade. Both of the tengu tensed visibly as the exposed steel gleamed in the dim light, but relaxed once more as the tiger feebly tossed the weapon aside. It didn't go far, clattering back to the ground just a few feet away.

The female tengu's eyes slid over to the sword, so close that it was still practically within arm's reach of the prone tiger. She snorted, her expression dubious. "Really?"

Tanner coughed, his lip curled. "W-... what do you want from me? Nf... y... you've been stomping on me f-... for the past five minutes. I'm lucky I can... ng... lucky I can even talk, let alone toss around a heavy chunk of metal."

Hiun considered that, then stepped lightly off of the feline. She moved about to his side, planting her scaled foot against the sword instead, and kicking it a dozen feet further down the alley. She turned back toward the tiger, one clawed hand set to her cocked hip as she smirked down at him. "Could have fooled me. I was starting to think you might actually be ENJOYING it."

She hesitated briefly, her gaze sliding back down to the male's crotch, but he had already cupped his other paw over his well-tenderized bits and pieces to obscure them as best he could. The crow shrugged again, still smirking as she casually waved him off with a dismissive sweep of her wing. "Well, no matter. Off with you. In the other direction, please, away from the sword."

The tiger nodded slightly, sliding against the ground as he rolled onto his side. One hand planted to the filthy ground, the other to the side of a dented trash bin, and he made a feeble attempt to pull himself upright. After struggling for a moment, he sank back down to the ground with a heartfelt moan, his hands quickly burying between his thighs again as he cradled his aching balls..

Hiun clacked her beak, smugness giving way to irritation. "NOW what?"

"C-... can't..." Tanner mewled, his ears slicked back against his skull. "Nnngh... can't stand. M-... my kittenmakers are all, hf... all messed up..."

"Oh," the tengu chirped, seeming just a tad mollified. Her smugness quickly returned in full force, as she practically reveled at the sight of the warrior writhing against the ground. The corners of her mouth curled upward, her eyes half-closed as she watched him for a moment longer. "Mmmn... right, well, maybe next time you'll give up sooner."

She gaped her beak slightly in an avian grin, stepping over the cringing male as she moved to join the other tengu that was waiting patiently for her. "Fine then, you stay there on the ground clutching whatever's left of your precious little-" and she stifled a faint, chirping giggle, "your 'kitten-makers', and we'll leave you to it. Don't try to get back up until we're LONG gone."

Hiun tossed a coy glance back over her shoulder, toward the tiger, her feathers ruffling a bit. "If you can get it up any time soon, that is." And a delicate pause, before she 'corrected' herself. "Oh, sorry, I mean if YOU can get up any time soon, that is."

Tanner just rolled over onto his other side, steadfastly looking away from the tengu.

"Hmf." Hiun frowned. "Well, this is no fun. Come on Meiro, let's go."

The taller tengu bobbed his head in silent agreement, falling into step behind the female as they both made for the nearest corner.

Tanner was suddenly behind them, deceptively swift and silent despite his recent theatrics. Meiro tensed as he felt the cold steel of a dagger pressed into his back, just below where one of his wings met his shoulderblade. The tengu tried to twist away violently, before the knife could do any serious damage to the delicate joint, and the tiger followed up with a swift kick to the back of his leg.

Meiro uttered an inarticulate squawk, the blow buckling his legs out from under him and forcing him down onto his hands and knees. Kinuta, obviously surprised at this sudden turn of events, stumbled from her captor's grip.

"Run!" Tanner hissed at her, pulling his knife free from the tengu's back before driving the pommel of his dagger down onto the top of the stunned avian's skull. This time the massive brute collapsed entirely, spilling face-first onto the ground in a feathered heap, but the tiger had no time to revel in his victory. Hiun was on him a split second later.

"What the FUCK!?" The furious fortune teller practically screeched, lunging for the tiger's throat. He threw his free arm up in front of her, keeping her claws from his neck, but she still managed to drive him backward several steps until his back hit the wall behind him. "How are you still standing!?"

"Give me a break," Tanner's lip curled now, practically spitting with defiance. He adjusted his grip on the dagger in his other hand, angling it toward Hiun's gut. "I've PAID women to kick me harder then that. If you weren't so busy patting yourself on the back, you might have noticed that I was faking it."

"My mistake," Hiun hissed, a hand pressing past the tiger's defenses as she tried to grab for his throat again, eager to choke him into silence. "Next time I'll kick you MUCH harder! Or maybe I'll just tear off your-" She abruptly paused, catching the glint of the tiger's blade from the corner of her eye.

As Tanner's hand came up to plunge the blade into her stomach, Hiun scrambled backward, surrendering her grip on his arm as she instead brought her leg up in a sharp motion. Her knee struck just below his outstreched hand, knocking the weapon from his grip and sending it flying up into the air between the two beastkin.

"Damn it!" Tanner hissed, stumbling back against the wall again as his head jerked upward in an effort to keep track of the dagger. It hadn't been knocked very high, and it was already falling again, so he could probably catch it if he-

Hiun lunged forward a second time, her hands planting flat against the tiger's chest as she shoved him back against the wall again. Her own head was tilted, an eye fixed on the falling blade, and one long wing lashed upward with practiced precision. The feathered edge caught against the spinning blade, dashing it off to the side with much greater force, and this time it flew off at an angle before glancing against a steel rain gutter and disappearing onto one of the rooftops that lined the alley.

The tiger's heart sank as he lost sight of the blade, and his temper spiked as he caught sight of the avian's triumphant smirk. Anger getting the best of him, he reacted without thinking, one hand balled up into a fist before he thumped it harshly into the avian's gut - or, er, maybe a bit higher than her gut.

The tengu recoiled as if shot, surprisingly soft and light against the tiger's fist. Really, it had almost felt like he was literally punching a feather-pillow. Hiun lurched backward several steps, her arms folded across her chest and her wings folded over her arms, as if to create two full lines of defense. Her back hit the wall opposite the breathless tiger, putting the full width of the alleyway between the two, and she glared at him. "You DICK! You punched me in the TIT!"

Tanner snorted, pushing off from the wall on his side of the alley as he warily approached the tengu once more. "You stabbed me!"

"You stabbed my son! You stabbed me, too!" Hiun hissed, pushing off of the wall as well, though she moved sideways in an effort to maintain some distance between herself and the tiger. As indignant as she seemed to be about being struck, she certainly didn't favor her bruises for more than a few quick seconds. Instead, she fell into an odd fighting pose - something vaguely similar to the one that Tanner had seen Kinuta use during his job interview a few days earlier..

The tiger's step slowed, his anger boiling away some as he tempered his aggression with a healthy dose of caution. He wasn't quite sure what to expect from the tengu now, though if she was half as skilled at hand-to-hand combat as Kinuta was, then he had good reason for caution. "Well you... were threatening to castrate me."

"Oh please," the tengu practically sneered in return, her black eyes darting down toward the male's crotch. Even with the two engaged in a life or death struggle, the male's half-erect length was obvious. "Apparently you LIKE that sort of thing."

Tanner faltered just slightly. He couldn't help it if his body was reacting as it was, but he could certainly do his best to ignore his libido and focus on the fight at hand. "Well, you tried to kill the woman I-... ah..."

The tiger's arms came up in front of him defensively, ready to absorb or turn aside the tengu's attacks. Without his dagger he was at a woeful disadvantage against Hiun's talons, but the wire mesh in his sleeves would at least provide a decent defense. But he didn't really need to win this fight, he just needed to stall the tengu long enough for Kinuta to finish escaping. "You tried to kill the, uh, woman I work for..." Tanner finished, lamely.

His gaze slanted sideways, and he was disheartened to see that Kinuta hadn't gotten far at all. She had barely managed to stumble a dozen steps from her former captor before she had apparently collapsed. Apparently, she was hurt far worse than he had realized.

"Hn." Hiun grunted, her fingers straightening out and her hands held flat as if they were makeshift blades. Unlike her legs, her arms were feathered right up to the knuckles, with only her fingers being covered in fine black scales. Each fingertip sported a glossy black talon, and while they were shorter than the ones she sported on her toes they were still wicked enough to flay the flesh from the tiger's bones.

The two warily circled each other for what seemed like an eternity, neither wanting to commit to making the first move. Before long it became evident that they were each trying to stall the other. Tanner was obviously waiting for Kinuta to come to her senses, while Hiun was - what was she waiting for? Was she waiting for the big brutish tengu to wake back up? Or maybe there were more tengu on their way?

Finally, Kinuta stirred again, the wounded raccoon pushing herself halfway up with her hands. Her whole body was trembling like a leaf caught in the wind, but with some exertion she managed to rise painstakingly to her feet-

And Hiun suddenly reversed directly, taking long sidelong steps back toward the weary raccoon. Tanner quickly realized her intentions, and he launched himself between the two beastkin, blocking the tengu's path.

Hiun uttered a satisfied grunt, one of her hands lashing out as the tiger drew within arm's reach. She kept her hand flattened, her finger-talons neatly lined up like the teeth of a sawblade, and from her aim it seemed she was trying to - what, drive them between his ribs? Was she actually trying to kill him now?

Tanner didn't wait to find out, eschewing any semblance of grace or technique as he smacked her hand away with one mighty swing. He wasn't trained in any particularly fancy fighting styles, beyond the obligatory bar-fighting techniques and a few tips that he'd picked up from his co-workers - and from one particularly sturdy gal from his favorite brothel. But he had cat-like reflexes, and the benefit of what seemed to be a gallon of adrenaline still coursing through his veins.

"Hhh-!" Hiun hissed, her body twisting as she recoiled from the deflection. She almost literally bounced off of the wall behind her, redirecting her momentum as she came at him again - this time from a slightly different angle. She lashed out at him again, this time with her other hand, but now her fingers were crooked like hooks. It was a tearing gesture, less intended to impale him and more intended to rip his furred flesh into bloody ribbons.

Tanner's other arm moved to block the strike, and her nails raked across the back of his forearm. The bony tips gouged through the cloth of his sleeve, catching at the wire mesh that was concealed beneath it, and the savagery of her attack was still enough to wet his fur with blood. Still, the armor had done it's job and absorbed the brunt of the assault, allowing the tiger to focus on countering the strike. His other hand clenched into a fist, and he swung it at Hiun's undefended side, aiming for her head.

The tengu's wings flared up around her, one of them catching the tiger's arm and deflecting his blow. It kept the strike from hitting her in the face, but from her expression the impact still pained her. Her wings were obviously delicate, and the fact that she had used one of them to block his strike showed how desperate she was getting.

The combatants briefly locked against each other, Tanner trying to clumsily bring his other arm to bear, and Hiun squirming and twisting about in an effort to avoid being grappled. One of her legs came up, though the strike was awkward in such close quarters, and her knee drove toward his groin.

Tanner winced as he felt her kneecap glance across the bottom of his low-hanging scrotum, a sharp sting lancing up through his nerves as his testes bounced away from the impact, but the brunt of the strike drove sideways against his inner thigh. It was enough to send him stumbling back a few steps, but it certainly wasn't as debilitating as some of her earlier attacks had been. It did succeed at buying the the tengu some more room, though, and she quickly scrambled away from the tiger once more.

As she moved, the crow's wings unfurled once more, flapping against the air in an effort to speed her retreat. The massive sweep of her wings didn't quite allow her to take flight - perhaps she didn't have enough room or energy for that - but it did still launch her backward across the alleyway. She landed a bit clumsily, stumbling several more steps before she caught herself against a pair of trash bins.

Tanner pressed in again, as he began to realize how much of an advantage he would have in closer quarters. His fingers flexed, his claws finally unsheathed, and he practically pounced toward his foe as he tried to catch her before she could fully regain her footing. He wasn't particularly comfortable with the idea of bringing tooth and claw into this fight, since it was generally frowned upon in modern beastkin society, but Hiun hadn't really left him with much choice.

"Awk!" The tengu's wings folded forward, crossing over each other as the crow desperately shielded herself from his broad, raking strike. The thick feathers absorbed much of the blow, making it difficult for the tiger to tell if he had inflicted any serious damage. He couldn't afford to let up on the assault, though, so he drew his hands back for another raking strike across the tengu's crooked wings.

Hiun's wings quickly folded out of the way this time, and the tengu desperately blocked his strike with a metal lid. It wasn't much, just hammered tin intended to keep vermin out of one of the trash bins, but it was enough to turn aside the tiger's relatively small claws and bloody his fingertips.

"Ah!" Tanner yelped, jerking his arm back as the sting of the impact jolted through the nerves all the way up to his elbow. Hiun quickly took advantage of his dropped guard, laying into him with a flurry of spirited but relatively ineffectual attacks. She started smacking him about the head and shoulders with the tin trash lid, her legs kicking out haphazardly as well as she lashed the tiger repeatedly across the shins, thighs, and groin with her taloned feet.

The tiger quickly retreated, the flurry of attacks more disorienting than painful. The two had been too close together for the crow to properly bring her toe-talons to bear, but her kicks still left new bruises and welts across his legs, and being smacked about the head with a sheet of metal certainly wasn't pleasant. He'd barely managed to get more than a few steps clear before Hiun hurled the trash lid after him, the circular piece of tin spinning through the air like a discus before it clattered audibly off of his skull.

"Gah, fuck!" Tanner staggered, one hand raised to shield his eyes. "Come ON!"

Hiun dropped back into a fighting pose, her wings folding safely behind her and her hands flattened back out like makeshift blades. She was panting visibly now, her beak hanging open as she sucked in one breath after another, and her previously precise movements were now marred by the increasingly obvious trembling that ran through her feathered frame.

Tanner glowered at her, his own arms raised in front of him once more as he advanced. He definitely needed to get back into close quarters, because it was increasingly obvious that it was where the tengu was at her weakest. She had outright panicked the last time he had managed it, so-

"Ack!" The tiger uttered a startled squeak, lurching backward as the tengu's leg lashed up at him to ward off his advance. Her long, dagger-like talons sliced through the air just a few inches from his upraised arms.

Hiun's expression was grim now, her eyes narrowed as she tried to predict the tiger's movements. She kicked out at him twice more, once at his face and again at his groin, and twice more the tiger was forced to retreat. The two were obviously at a stalemate now, since the tengu's legs had a longer reach than the tiger's arms, and her talons were much more formidable weapons than his retractible claws. There was no safe way to approach, but at the same time the tengu was either unwilling or unable to retreat.

Tanner panted softly, feeling his adrenaline finally beginning to wane. The aches and pains from his dozens of cuts and bruises were starting to catch up with him, mingling with the dull ache of older, half-healed injuries he had accrued over the past week. He tried to time the tengu's movements, guessing at the odds that he'd be able to catch her leg or foot in mid-swing, but it didn't seem-

"Ah, fuck it." He sighed, any semblance of fair play discarded. He reached back with one hand, catching the rim of a half-filled trash bin in his hand, and then he swung the whole thing about in one brute motion. She was faster and better trained for this kind of brawl, but he was bigger and stronger. It was time to use that to his advantage, and bring this absurd battle to an end.

"Awk!" Hiun's beak gaped as the barrel flipped end-over-end toward her. The bottom edge glanced off the ground, garbage spewing in every direction before the bin crashed into her upraised arms. She was sent staggering backwards, and her wings unfurled once more and clumsily swiping at the air as she tried to regain her balance - and that gave the tiger ample time to hit her with another trash bin.

Literally barreled over, Hiun fell heavily onto her back, her wings spreadeagled in an effort to keep herself from landing atop them. She rocked her weight back onto her shoulderblades, legs kicking up into the air as she tried to use the momentum of her fall to help flip herself back onto her feet, but the tiger was already upon her. This time Tanner grabbed ahold of her long, scaled ankles and hurled her across the alley and into another set of trashbins.

"A-... akk...!" The tengu croaked, gasping for breath as she came to rest against the twisted tangle of bent tin and freshly liberated trash. Her limbs lashed about, almost moving independently of each other as she tried to both catch her bearings and ward off her attacker simultaneously, but there was no elegance to the defense.

Tanner simply waited for an opening, then slipped past her thrashing legs before dropping atop her. He pressed a knee to her stomach, pinning her to the ground, and he grabbed hold hold of her wrists before forcing her clawed hands to her own throat. "Enough, it's over."

Hiun went wide-eyed, her beak working soundlessly and her wings squirming beneath her. She struggled to break free from the feline's grasp, but it was a futile gesture. The tiger was physically stronger than she was, and he could have easily maimed or killed her if he had chosen to do so.

Once her position had become clear, the tengu went limp, and her beak snapping shut as she fell into sullen silence. She turned her head to one side, her eyes closed to slits as if she were waiting for him to finish her off.

Tanner's ear twitched slightly, his shoulders heaving as he worked at steadying his own breathing. He had really expected the avian to... well, to do SOMEthing. To beg or plead, or to come up with some other last-ditch defensive maneuver. But no, she just seemed resigned now.

The two held their respective positions for a long, breathless moment before Hiun finally rasped. "Just... make it quick."

Tanner sighed, letting one of her wrists loose before curling his fingers into a fist before thumping her upside the head. She jerked violently, her skull bouncing against the cobblestone beneath it, and she fell limp beneath him as if he had simply flipped her off switch. The tiger took a second to make sure she was still breathing, then another few seconds to make sure she wasn't simply feigning unconsciousness, before he finally pushed back to his feet.

And he almost immediately lurched sideways, barely catching himself against the closest wall. Gods, now the fight was catching up with him in full force. His whole body ached, and he was suddenly acutely aware of every little cut and bruise on his body. His nose was bloodied, his lip was split, his arm was bloodied twice over, and his balls felt like they were swollen to the size of oranges - and there was the added awkwardness of his clothes being torn completely open, leaving him rather immodestly exposed.

He sucked in a deep breath, filling his lungs until they felt ready to burst, and then he slowly let it out again. He reminded himself to focus on breathing, and then...

Tanner uttered another ragged sigh, straightening back up once he'd steadied himself. He still ached all over, especially below the waist, but at least he was thinking more clearly now. He glanced toward the tengu - both were still decorating the alley floor - and then he turned to check on the raccoon.

She was lying nearby, still resting on her side in an oddly provocative pose that hardly seemed appropriate for the proud warrior. The tiger moved over to check on her once more, and she quickly stirred, one of her arms raising defensively as she squinted up at the tiger. She relaxed as she realized it was him, her arm lowering again and her torn robes falling halfway open with the motion. "Y-... you did it, you saved me!"

The tiger frowned a little, the note of gratitude in the raccoon's voice somehow striking him as rather disengenuous. His angular ears slanted forward, his whiskers twitching as he briefly flitted his gaze over the female's entire body, trying to pinpoint just what it was that seemed... off about her. Her posture practically radiated raw vulnerability and implied sexuality, and her robes were in an almost artful state of disarray that almost-but-not-quite left her chest and much of her inner thighs exposed.

No, this definitely wasn't right. This wasn't how Kinuta normally acted.

"Here," Tanner offered her a feigned smile, an arm extended as if to help her rise back to her feet. "Take my hand."

The raccoon gave him a timid smile in turn, one hand coming up to clasp against his own, her robes falling loose from one delicate shoulder as she did so. One of her furred breasts fell into complete view now, perfectly shaped and sized to fill any horny tiger's paw - and Kinuta's gaze quickly averted as she tried to hide her obvious embarrassment. But she made no move to cover herself back up.

Tanner snorted, his grip tightening on the raccoon's hand, one foot sliding forward as he none-too-gently planted the sole of his boot to her chest before roughly shoving her back onto the ground.

"Ow! Fuck!" The raccoon finally spoke, her voice all wrong for the person she was masquarading as. "What the hell is your problem!?"

"You're not Kinuta, either." Tanner growled, keeping her pinned underfoot. "You're another damned imposter!"

The female fell still, frowning as she peered up at the obviously irate feline. After a few seconds of thought, she finally grinned, giving a half-roll of her shoulders as she gave up the ruse. "Shit, you're smarter than you look. Oh well."

That said, Kinuta - or the thing masquerading as her, at least - kicked one of her legs up behind the feline. She was pinned to the ground, flat on her back, but her body was evidently lithe and flexible enough to allow her to easily bring her foot to bear in one swift and brutal motion, her curled toes hammering into the back of the tiger's dangling nutsack. The angle was awkward, but the impact was solid, and the swollen contents of that pouch slapped forward so hard that they almost audibly slapped against his tensed abdomen.

"Gnuhhf....!" Tanner uttered a breathless gasp, this new pain being something that he was almost entirely unaccustomed to. He'd been hit in the balls dozens of times in the past, perhaps even close to a hundred, and often by choice - he liked to think that it had given him a rather unique resistance to the usual debilitation that came with the average low blow.

This time, however, the kick was both unexpected, and far more painful than he could have anticipated, the impact almost entirely focused on the impossibly sensitive backside of his testes where the cords connected them to the rest of his body. It was an entirely new type of pain that he'd never quite imagined was possible.

His legs wobbled violently beneath him as he struggled to stay upright, his throat locking up as the agony suddenly made it hard to draw another breath. He blinked hard, in an effort to keep tears from welling up in his eyes and obscuring his vision, and he was dimly aware that the female below him had lowered her leg again.

For one dreadful second Tanner was struck by the overwhelming fear that she was about to kick him again, but instead she used her free hand to grab the foot he'd planted against her chest so she could shove it off of her. With one leg knocked out from beneath him, he collapsed gracelessly to the ground, though the faux-raccoon wasn't left with enough time to scramble clear.

"Ow, no! Don't fall on me, you stupid jerk!" She huffed, more indignant than inconvenienced. He was little more than cringing, mewling dead weight at this point, and she had an easy enough time squirming halfway out from beneath him. Another rough shove and she managed to push the tiger over onto his back, and she quickly rolled atop him, a victorious grin splitting her muzzle.

"There, much better! Now, just to make sure you stay down..." Her grin took on a cruel edge, her hands planted flat to the male's chest as he huffed and puffed for breath beneath her. One knee planted to the ground aside his hip, and she peeked down to where both his hands were desperately clutching his freshly stricken nutsack. It was a simple enough matter to line up her other leg with his crotch, and then she started brutally and methodically slamming her knee into the tiger's groin.

Tanner uttered a pained mewl as the faux-raccoon's broad kneecap crushed into his hands, hitting hard enough to bruise flesh and awkwardly bend joints. Even with his hands held defensively over his badly bruised balls, the force of the blow still carried through some, his swollen orbs crushed some against his body and rendering him breathless all over again. It certainly wasn't the hardest he'd ever been hit, but given his current state it really didn't need to be - and the faux-raccoon showed no signs of stopping at just the one kick.

The thing posing as Kinuta drew her leg back again, her tonguetip jutting from one corner of her mouth as she quickly line dup another blow before slamming her knee back into the tiger's hands. This time something audibly popped beneath the impact, striking ice-cold terror through the tiger's heart, but he was almost grateful as the searing pain came from his knuckles rather than his crotch. He reflexively jerked his hands away, to prevent them from suffering any more damage 'neath that knee - and a split second later he realized the absurdity of the move.

"Dummy." The faux-raccoon grinned, promptly slamming her knee into his crotch a third time, though this time her rounded kneecap thumped right into his exposed testes without the benefit of his paws to slow the impact. The glands were caught neatly 'neath the assault, the swollen spuds squashing grossly against the crux of his legs as the increasingly malleable organs did everything they could to find some way to escape the impossibly agonizing pressure.

Tanner's muzzle worked silently, but the tigerkin was utterly breathless, and his whole body was practically paralyzed with pain. The last of his strength was spent grasping at the raccoon's robes in an attempt to feebly shove her away, but the fabric practically disintegrated in his grip, coming away as a handful of black feathers. Her disguise crumbled away around it, cloth and fur giving way to banded scales and black plumage.

The tengu leered at him, her body jerking as she gave him one last swift knee to the groin for good measure - though she at least seemed merciful enough to temper the force of the blow this time, and it was almost gentle in comparison to the earlier attacks. The tiger spasmed beneath her, finding the energy to buckle at the waist as he again tried to push the tengu away, and this time the avian slipped lithely from his grasp.

The resistance thoroughly bludgeoned from his body, Tanner just curled up on the filthy cobblestones, Some distant part of his brain wanted him to rise back to his feet, to keep fighting or to make good his escape. But instead he just curled up into the fetal position, uttering faint mewling sounds as he rocked and twitched against the filthy cobblestone floor.

***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****

Kinuta panted harshly, pausing for a moment to lean against a grime-slicked and heavily padlocked door. It was, what, the fifteenth time she had passed it now? Or maybe it was the sixteenth? She'd lost track at this point. The important thing was that no matter what path she took, she always seemed to end up back in this same stretch of alleyway.

She had tried backtracking at first, and then she had tried taking different turns. She had tried sprinting down the alley as fast as she could, and she had even tried clenching her eyes shut and navigating by touch. But each time, as soon as she felt she had started making progress, she had been struck by a sudden headache and found herself right back where she had started.

At one point she had thought to try scaling the walls, to reach the rooftops overhead. It had taken some work, since the walls slicked with filth and there were precious few handholds to be found, but she had finally managed it after several minutes of effort. But all that effort had been wasted, because no sooner had she crested the edge of the rooftop when she found herself back in that damned alley, and the migraine that came with it had been so severe that it had set her nose to bleeding. She hadn't dared to try it again.

To say this was disconcerting was an understatement, and it had the stench of a tengu-crafted mindtrap all over it. Normally her carefully cultivated, single-minded drive was enough to help her resist such necromantic dweomers, but somehow this one had slipped past her mental defenses. It had to be because she had been distracted.

And, of course, it was all that stupid tiger's fault! That stupid, handsome, infuriatingly confusing tiger.

Kinuta closed her eyes, rubbing lightly at the lids for a moment before she tried to will her headache away. It got a little worse each time she traversed the alley, and eventually she feared that it would grow so severe that she would pass out - and then it would all be over. The tengu usually knew better than to face her in direct combat, so wearing her down with tricks and traps was a more cowardly but infinitely more effective tactic.

She drew in a deep breath, trying to focus hard enough to pierce the enchantment. It was just a necromantic sorcelation, like any other mind-effecting spell. Granted, it was a complex one with redundant failsafes, but still... it was just a spell. All she had to do was focus hard enough, and she would theoretically be able to pierce it.

It was just so damned hard to focus through all that pain. If only she could-

Something popped in her ears, as if she had suddenly and rapidly changed altitude. Her eyes fluttered back open, her neck craning as she peered about in mild confusion. She had half-expected to find herself midway down the alley again, an equal distance between where she had come from and where she wanted to go.

But this time she was at the far end of the alley, and she could even hear voices nearby!

Her ears twitched forward, the raccoon taking a few careful steps forward as if she were afraid that the end of the alley would flicker away like a mirage. It didn't, and her pace quickened eagerly as she rounded the corner.

How long had she been trapped in that damned alley? Half an hour? Longer? It was hard to tell in retrospect, and the closely-spaced buildings made it difficult to see the sky well enough to make any proper estimates. However long it had been, it meant that Tanner had been facing the Tengu alone for at least several minutes - and who was to say what might have happened during that time?

She paused as she reached another branching intersection, her rounded ears perked as she finally heard something - the crashing of metal, and some inarticulate shouting. That certainly SOUNDED like a fight in progress! Her heartbeat quickened, in time with her rapid footfalls, as she oriented herself toward the sound and set off once more.

Oh, yes, she could definitely hear voices now. They were unfamiliar, but certainly feminine. And there was something else... groaning? Ah, now THAT sounded familiar. Very familiar. Almost intimately familiar, in fact. And now the sounds were very close.

Kinuta's eyes narrowed, her hand setting to the hilt of her blade, and she slowed as she drew near another corner. Forcibly slowing her breathing, she silenced her movements as best she could as she spied down the alley that the noises were coming from. At a glance, there were several bodies strewn about the alley, and only a single figure still standing - a tengu!

The raccoonkin's first impulse was to charge into the alley and confront the beast, but she managed to restrain herself. There was no sense in rushing blindly into a situation she had not yet properly surveyed. She held back, settling into shadows, ears perked and neck craning as she tried to better reconnoiter the situation.

"Huh, smarter than I thought, but still an idiot." The thin, female tengu was murmuring to herself. She was standing over a fallen beastkin - Tanner! The tengu's foot was set to the feline's side, though he wasn't making much of an effort to escape out from beneath her talons. In fact, he just seemed thoroughly occupied with groaning and writhing on the ground, which implied that he had been wounded.

Still, wounded was better than killed. This certainly wasn't the best outcome that Kinuta could have hoped for, but it was better than some of the more dreadful outcomes she had feared.

The tengu suddenly shifted, her feathers ruffled up as she quickly hopped away from the tiger, ducking down in an awkward motion as she scooped up the sword that had fallen near his side. "Hey, no! Bad kitty! Gods, just fuckin' give up already, ya moron!"

Kinuta allowed herself a faint smile. Even wounded, the tiger was still trying to fight back. That certainly reassured her some.

"Sheesh!" The tengu huffed, the blade awkwardly propped against her shoulder as she traipsed away from the huddled tiger now. Moving over to another fallen beastkin, she prodded at it with a taloned foot. "Hey, Hiun, you okay?"

The prodded figure stirred, uttering a croaked groan, before suddenly jerking bolt-upright into a sitting position. Both of her clawed hands rose up, planting against her feathered head. "Gnh... S-... Sarakku? What...?"

The younger female tengu, Sarakku, stuck out her tongue as she offered a hand. "Sorry, I would'a jumped in sooner, but you looked like you were doing okay. I mean, up until the part where Stripes started beating the crap out of ya."

Hiun shakily accepted the younger crow's hand, before managing to unsteadily make her way back to her feet. "The tiger...!?"

"No worries!" Sarakku grinned, her plumage puffed up proudly. "The dork totally fell for the body-double trick again. I mean, uh, kind'a. But I'm pretty sure he's down for the count, this time."

"Hrrf," Hiun uttered a croaking groan, casting her gaze about until it fell upon the huddled feline. "No, not going to underestimate THAT one again. Is that-? Give me his sword."

Sarakku hesitated, her beak working soundlessly for a few seconds. Her head cocked slightly, her expression perplexed. "Er, you sure? We don't normally, uh..."

The elder tengu snorted, leaning over to grab the sword from Sarakku's lax grip. Striding past her, she moved steadily toward the fallen tiger. "I'm sure. He's different from the discount mercenaries that the trash panda usually hires. This one is actually dangerous. He managed to fight me to a standstill, and he KILLED Meiro!"

"Actually, uh, I think Meiro's still alive." Sarakku mused, her hands on her hips now as she kicked at a third fallen figure. The figure stirred, a wing coming up to feebly swat at whoever was prodding at it. "Yup! Alive."

Kinuta, still obscured by both brick and shadows, frowned deeply. THREE tengu! If she had realized there were so many gathered in one place, she would have never sent Tanner in to face them alone!

The raccoon bit her lower lip gently, her brow furrowed as she tried to decide what to do. Under most circumstances, she would have already attacked, but this situation was precarious. There were still two tengu that were on their feet, and her only potential ally seemed... incapacitated. While she might prevail if she were to attack, there was no guarantee that the cowardly tengu wouldn't attempt to use the fallen tiger as a bargaining chip.

Hiun was standing near the tiger now, the sword held clumsily in her scaled fingers. It was painfully obvious that she wasn't accustomed to even holding such a cumbersome weapon, let alone wielding it, but that made it no less dangerous as she prodded the feline's cringing form with the sharp tip of the blade. "Hhf... well, I suppose I don't have to KILL him, then. Maybe I'll just maim him a little, to teach him a lesson. That would probably-"

The elder tengu suddenly tensed, snapping her attention back toward Sarakku as her eyes widened in alarm. "Wait, wake Meiro back up! Now!"

Sarakku blinked, then peeked down at the male tengu who was still sprawled at her feet. She jabbed at him with her toe-talons again, more insistently this time. "Um, okay. Hey Meiro, wake the fuck up."

"Y-... yes..." The larger birdkin mumbled, rousing enough to awkward half-roll away from the ceaseless poking. He winced, one wing flexing and the other spasming weakly against his back - it was obvious that it wasn't working properly. "I am... awake. I just... need a moment..."

Hiun moved away from the tiger, her attention focused on the other tengu instead. "Meiro, PLEASE tell me that the mindfield is still active. It's the only thing that was keeping the trash panda away from us, while we took care of her pet tiger. If you dropped the spell, then-"

None of the tengu were standing near the tiger now, and they all seemed to be distracted. It still wasn't an ideal scenario, but it was likely the best that Kinuta would be able to hope for given the circumstances. She steeled her nerves, curled her fingers tightly about the hilt of her bokken, and strode boldly around the corner.

"Surrender," she stated simply, her demeanor stern but her voice lethally calm. "And I will kill you quickly."

"Aaaahh," Hiun groaned, looking back toward the raccoonkin. "Shit."

Kinuta began to slowly advance, her weapon still sheathed, but her posture making it clear that she was ready to draw it in an instant. Her heart was racing, but still she forced herself to maintain a placid exterior - it was important to present an unflappable demeanor, because she was well aware that others often found it... unsettling. "I will make this offer only once more. Surrender now, and I will kill you quickly. It will be a good death, with a minimum of suffering."

Hiun uttered a ragged sigh, fixing one avian eye on the raccoon. She raised the tiger's sword in her double-fisted grip, as if ready to awkwardly defend herself with it. "Well Gods, when you put it THAT way... I'm going to have to say no."

"Yeah!" Sarakku eagerly chimed in, half-concealed behind the elder tengu, but with both of her middle fingers extended so enthusiastically that it was almost as if she expected to somehow weaponize them. "Fuck you! We've got you outnumbered, bitch!"

Kinuta cocked her head slightly, but she said nothing. Her hand slipped away from the hilt of her bokken, instead settling to the leather-wrapped hilt of her katana. Her thumb flicked gently against the edge of the handguard, drawing the weapon just far enough that a sliver of it's meticulously sharpened and polished blade was visible. The metal almost seemed to glow unnaturally in what little light managed to filter into the alleyway.

Hiun clacked her beak lightly, easing back a step as she eyed the glint of steel warily. "Hhh... Sara, please don't goad the lunatic. You remember what happened the LAST time we had her outnumbered, right?"

Kinuta certainly remembered that encounter. It had been in one of the desert trade-towns to the southeast - Pazar if she recalled correctly. The tengu had hired a dozen of the local brigands to discourage her pursuit, and things had gotten... messy...

From her expression, the younger tengu remembered that as well. She shuffled back a few steps as well, until she was more securely behind the sword-wielding tengu. "Right, sorry mom. Sometimes I forget that she's a total fuckin' psychopath." Then louder, she called over toward the raccoon. "Uh, hey! I was just kidding, okay?"

There was a tense moment of silence, as the raccoon and the tengu stared each other down, and finally it was Sarakku who broke the silence once more. "Can we... uh, can we run away now?"

"Permission granted." Hiun quickly answered, and with a snap of her clawed fingers the two tengu vanished amidst a swirling cloud of dense smoke and black feathers. Tanner's sword clattered to the ground in their wake, forgotten in their haste to retreat 'neath the cover of magic.

"Tch," Kinuta clucked her tongue against her teeth derisively. "Cowards."

She made no move to pursue, because she knew full well that it was almost certainly a hopeless task. The tengu were substandard warriors, but their wings and their mastery of mind-effecting magics made them quite adept at eluding capture. Besides, she wasn't about to charge headlong into the cloud of roiling, greasy smoke that they had left in their wake.

Kinuta moved cautiously to the smoke's edge, watching for any glimpses of movement as the cloud slowly dispersed. She could hear harsh coughing, and shuffling sounds that made it seem someone might be stumbling about blindly beyond her line of sight. "Tanner?"

She began to carefully circle around the smoke's edge as she tried to bring herself closer to the source of the sound, when the slightest scuff of a footfall against the cobblestones caught her ear. Her hand came up just in time to catch hold of the hand that was suddenly moving toward her neck, a single-edged knife poised dangerously close to her throat. Another arm wrapped about her from behind, as if to hold her firmly in place.

The raccoon frowned slightly, her gaze dipping some as she looked to the arms of whomever it was that had grappled her from behind. The black-and-orange fur made it obvious enough. "Tanner. What are you doing?"

"You used me as bait." The tiger rasped near her ear, his throat evidently raw from the smoke, or perhaps from the exhausting battle he had just fought. "You knew there were too many of them for me to handle, and you didn't even care. You just sent me in here to die, while you skulked around in the shadows like a coward."

Kinuta snorted, her whiskers twitching just slightly as she slowly drew in a breath before speaking. "Don't be absurd."

"Tell me the truth, you psychopath." The tiger hissed, venom in his tone. "How many other sellswords have you gotten killed, with your careless-"

She didn't bother to let him finish speaking, instead applying a swift measure of torque and pressure to the wrist she was still clutching in her grip. The tiger's arm tensed, but even with his greater strength the relatively delicate nature of the joint made it impossible for him to resist the sudden twisting. Something popped audibly out of place, and the knife fell from his suddenly numbed fingers, the rest of his body shifting against the raccoon's back as he tried to find the leverage to yank his arm away from the vicious raccoon.

He was so consumed with pulling away from the female that he relaxed his hold on Kinuta's body, and the raccoon quickly capitalized on that by sliding her other arm free from his grip. It came down in a short and simple motion, fingers curled into a fist with her knuckles angled backward so that they would collide harshly with the tiger's crotch. She knew that his pants were lined with padded leather and stiff wire, but it was still vulnerable to swift bludgeoning motions - especially if they were aimed at such delicate bits of his anatomy.

The male uttered another pained sound at the impact, though softer and wetter this time, as the harsh blow to his genitals caused the air to erupt from his lungs. He folded forward against the female's back, and she promptly jerked her head backward in a sharp motion to bring the thick bone of her skull crashing into the side of his face. It struck hard enough to snap his head backward, sending him reeling away - but her firm hold on his wrist kept him from stumbling more than a step or two.

She spared a brief glance downward now, to confirm the positioning of the tiger's feet, and this time she leaned forward to subtly build up momentum as she simultaneously jerked one of her legs up behind her with practiced ease. It wasn't a particularly practical move, but it was a vicious one, and the raccoon felt the need to vent some of her recent frustrations.

The tiger's thighs parted ahead of her foot, as if he were tacitly granting her permission to strike him, though in truth she knew that he was simply spreading his legs in an effort to keep his footing and hold his balance. She almost heard the impact before she felt it, the rounded bone of her heel crushing up into the male's genitals with a soft *WHUD* of contact that echoed off the alley's closely-spaced walls. His thighs almost immediately snapped shut around her foot, but it was far too late to mitigate the force of the blow, and a split second later he was on his toes as the impact carried right through his testicles and into the solid bone of his pelvis.

Kinuta uttered a satisfied grunt, releasing the tiger's wrist and smoothly yanking her foot free from the grip of his trembling thighs. Stepping away quickly, she let him buckle to the ground behind her.

She glanced back over her shoulder now, one brow arched as she watched the would-be tiger's form waver before flickering away in a ripple of black feathers. The disguise of a tengu was rather cunning, but it maintained some degree of concentration, and she had clearly just inflicted a sufficient amount of pain and injury to thoroughly disrupt the creature's ability to concentrate - to put it lightly.

The raccoon turned, her hand dipped back to the handle of her bokken as she smoothly drew the weapon from it's sheath, holding it poised in case the tengu was ready to attack her once more. Fortunately, the thing seemed far too preoccupied with wretching and spasming in the gutter, so that gave Kinuta ample time to survey the rest of the alleyway.

The smoke had mostly cleared now, and Tanner - the real one? - had stumbled clear. He had both hands cupped over his bloodied muzzle, but it was obvious that the smoke had still set his eyes to watering and his nose to running. He managed to choke out a few words as he limped toward Kinuta. "Wasn't... kf... that wasn't me...!"

"Yes." Kinuta responded calmly, her expression carefully neutral, but her body subtly relaxing at the sight of the tigerkin. "I am aware."

Tanner coughed a few more times in an effort to clear any trace of the smoke from his lungs, and he rather gracelessly rubbed his face against the back of his sleeve in an effort to control his leaking eyes and nose. "Kph... pfeh... t-... tried to warn you when... kf... when I heard him, but I could barely breath. Don't know what was in that... kffkf... in that smoke, but..."

"Yes." Kinuta repeated, moving toward the feline now. Her bokken came up, the tip thumping firmly to the limping and coughing male's chest as she stalled his advance, and she began to cautiosly circle around him. "The tengu mix choking powders into their smoke bombs, to discourage pursuit. It is why I did not attempt to pursue the two who fled."

"Uh, Kinuta?" Tanner frowned, one watering eye squinting half-shut as he tried to focus on the wooden blade that was set lightly to his sternum. "What're you...?"

Kinuta frowned slightly, circling the rest of the way around the tigerkin as she made a show of scrutinizing him, the blunted tip of her bokken dragging around the feline's frame. "Quiet. Hold still."

Tanner hesitated, then opened his muzzle again, but a steely look from the raccoon prompted him to remain silent. He uttered a restrained sigh, then went back to rubbing at his watering eyes while he left the raccoon to continue her inspection.

The raccoon circled the tiger again, a little more slowly this time - and this time she made a point of lightly prodding at each of the tiger's obvious wounds. Tanner flinched each time, as her bokken jabbed or pressed at each cut and bruise on his body, one after another.

Finally, Kinuta stood in front of the tiger once more, her gaze low as she eyed his crotch. The front of his pants had been torn entirely open, leaving his genitals entirely on unabashed display - and making the rather obvious bruising and swelling all the more obvious. She grunted in wry amusement, though her expression still remained carefully neutral, and she flicked her wooden blade downward to press it gently but firmly against the male's bruised pair.

"O-... ow!" Tanner protested, finally breaking his silence. "Kinuta, this is ridiculo-"

He fell silent as Kinuta suddenly slid forward, her wooden blade dropping away from his crotch with the motion. She stepped so close that her nose was practically pressed to the feline's, her eyes locked on his own as if she were looking for something in his gaze. Whiskers twitching slightly, she drew in a slow and deliberate breath as she took in a lungful of his distinctive scent.

Tanner floundered a bit, his ears skewed out to either side. He was obviously at a loss as to how he was supposed to respond to this behavior, but he finally opted to lean in and press his lips lightly to the raccoon's in an awkward kiss-

And she immediately flicked her wrist, sending the wooden blade of her bokken smacking back upward into his bruised testes. It was still a relatively gentle motion, though significantly firmer than before - like an irritated tutor rapping the knuckles of an inattentive student.

Tanner almost immediately pulled away, uttering a pained hiss as both his hands promptly dropped down to his throbbing balls to both cradle them and shield them from any further abuse. "Agh, fuck! What the hells, Kinuta!?"

Kinuta took a casual step back, only the slightest hint of a blush on her furred cheeks, but she artfully concealed it by raising an arm and making a show of wiping the feline's saliva from her lips. "You forget your place."

"I thought-" Tanner huffed, his ears flicking forward, then bolt-upright as he tried to straighten himself back up. "I thought you were wanted me to do that! You were standing right in front of me, with your lips right there, and-"

"Do not be foolish." Kinuta chided him, her expression and tone sliding back into a comfortably neutral state. She turned away from the tiger, moving back toward the vomiting tengu that she had left huddled in the nearby gutter. With a deft swipe of her bokken, she firmly clubbed the incapacitated avian across the back of his head, and he went limp.

Looking back to the flustered tiger, she eyed him with some degree of disdain. "I was simply verifying your identity. You are the real Tanner."

"Well..." Tanner murmured, a tad mollified and more than a little embarrassed. "You could have... just asked...?"

Kinuta's attention had already returned to the felled tengu. She resheathed her bokken with one smooth motion, then reached down and curled an arm about the brawny crow before hefting him onto her shoulder with surprising ease. Despite his seemingly bulky frame, he was very light - all feathers and hollow bones, as befit a creature designed for flight rather than combat.

"And had you been a Tengu." Kinuta finally chided the tiger again, her attention returning to him once she had secured her prisoner. "Then you would have lied."

Tanner considered that for a few seconds, then uttered another sigh. He averted his gaze, focusing on trying to find his sword instead. The smoke had entirely cleared by this point, and he spied the blade on the ground a dozen feet distant. He quickly limped over to retrieve it, and Kinuta waited in silence until he had finished.

Given a moment to gather his thoughts, the tigerkin moved back to the raccoon's side. "R-... right, right. Sorry. I'm still trying to... wrap my head around all of this. I've never run into shapeshifters before. Not, uh, not like these things, anyway." And a pause, before Tanner looked to the feathered figure draped over Kinuta's shoulder. "How, ah... how did you know that one wasn't really... me?"

"Tch," Kinuta's tongue clicked against her teeth derisively, before making a brief show of inspecting the tiger's injuries again. "His shortblade was not a western dagger, such as the one you might use. It was an eastern throwing blade."

Tanner blinked slowly, obviously unconvinced. "Those were all over the place during the fight. What if I had picked one of them up?"

Kinuta leveled her gaze at him, her eyes half-closed and her jaw cocked ever-so-slightly. She didn't like this line of questioning. "And you would not speak to me as he did."

Tanner frowned slightly, seeming even more skeptical of THAT explanation. After all, he'd challenged her several times over the past few days, and they had exchanged heated words on more than one occasion. "And, ah, what if it HAD been me speaking to you that way?"

Kinuta's gaze didn't waver, her expression dead-even. "Then you would have ended up on the ground, vomiting what was left of your precious manhood. But you would have survived."

The tiger twitched a bit, glancing to the unconscious tengu that was still draped almost effortlessly over the raccoon's shoulder. He still didn't seem particularly convinced by her explanation, but he at least seemed to realize that it was best not to persist with this line of questioning. "Well, that's... reassuring."

"Yes." Kinuta agreed promptly, her gaze turned back toward the alleyway. It was empty now, but for the two beastkin and the unconscious tengu that was draped over her shoulder like an awkward feather-cloak. There was no sign of the two tengu who had fled, though there was certainly no guarantee that they hadn't found some way to conceal themselves amidst the rooftops or the deeper shadows. "Are you well enough to walk?"

"I, ah, think so." Tanner murmured hesitantly, quickly taking stock of himself. "Bruised, cut up, and embarrassed about the state of my clothes, but I should be able to keep up with you."

Kinuta turned, promptly beginning to move away from the tiger as she headed back toward the far end of the alley. "Good. We must leave before the others realize that we have captured one of their number."

Tanner nodded, lapsing into somewhat disgruntled silence. But, even disgruntled, he still fell into step behind the raccoon as she began to lead the way back out of the twisting and claustrophobic alleyways.

It was only after a few long moments of tense silence that Kinuta finally felt compelled to speak again, the faintest tinge of a blush on her skin - though it was thankfully concealed by both fur and darkness. "It was his smell."

Tanner quickened his limping pace, moving up to walk alongside the raccoon now. His brow was furrowed, and his ears were both flicked toward her attentively. "His... smell?"

Kinuta frowned slightly, her gaze kept fixed forward as she steadfastly refused to look at the tiger. Her blushing deepened slightly, but she hoped that it was still dark enough that the tiger could not make out her growing embarrassment. "Yes. He did not... smell like you. Tengu can craft cunning disguises, but they are not adept at imitating things such as textures and smells."

"And..." Tanner coughed lightly, seeming a little uncomfortable himself. "And you, ah, know how I smell?"

The raccoon hesitated, swallowing quietly as her thoughts briefly flitted back over the things she had done with the tiger over the past week. Of COURSE she knew how he smelled. Intimately so. Her ears burned fiercely now, and she redoubled her pace to one that the tiger could not match, simply so she could take the lead once more before the feline could get a better look at her expression.

"Is... this really a matter of such great importance?" Kinuta murmured, her tone unusually subdued. "Such that we can risk chattering about it here, so close to where we were ambushed by a flock of mystical assassins?"

"Ah..." Tanner paused, then quietly relented. He tried to keep up with the raccoon, but his injuries prevented it. "No. No, I guess not."

Kinuta let out a faint sigh of relief, her discomfort slowly fading as she once again found herself in a position of control. She slowed her pace once more, but just enough that the tiger wouldn't fall too far behind her. "Good. Then let us focus on returning to our lodgings."

"Right..." Tanner responded.

Kinuta allowed another moment of silence to pass, until her discomfort had fully passed. Really, for all intents and purposes, the tiger really had performed quite adequately. She had contributed very little to their overall victory - Tanner had been the one who had fought a losing battle, outnumbered three-to-one, and had still managed to delay the tengu until she could arrive to reinforce his position. Perhaps he deserved some sort of reward for that.

She bit her lower lip lightly, her whiskers twitching uncertainly before she spoke again, her head turning just slightly as she glanced sidelong back at the limping tiger. Her gaze dipped pointedly to the gaping hole at the crotch of his pants, where both his hands were hovering in a vain attempt to protect his modesty. "And once we are there, we will find you some new clothes."

"R-... right..." Tanner echoed, his embarrassment obvious once more.

"And I will... clean and tend your injuries." Kinuta continued, her gaze still lingering at the male's crotch for a few seconds longer, before she turned her head forward once more, her gaze returned to the darkened street ahead.

"Right!" Tanner repeated, for a third time, though this time both surprise and a note of anticipation were obvious in his tone. His step quickened almost imperceptibly behind the raccoon, belying his sudden eagerness.

And, confident that the newly enthused tiger could not see her expression, Kinuta finally allowed herself a very self-satisfied smile.